Lunch Break
by sparrowlove
Summary: Ellie suspects that something is wrong with Chuck, but Awesome's not talking. Spoilers up to and including "Chuck vs the Colonel." EllieAwesome


Lying to Ellie was so not awesome. But the wedding was in less than a week and he didn't want her to worry. Besides, if he and Chuck were going to be bros-in-law, they were entitled to a few secrets, weren't they? Devon had figured that those secrets would've been more like the watching-the-game-when-they-said-they-were-cleaning-the-garage variety, but national security secrets were okay too. Anyway, it explained a lot. Especially about Chuck's co-worker, John. Ellie seemed to like him a lot, and Devon had to admit he was pretty cool, but he always thought there was something a little weird about him. Especially once those two weird guys Chuck worked with showed Devon all of Casey's… Chuck stuff. But at least there was a reason for it.

"Hon?" Ellie's voice broke Devon out of his thoughts. "Are you listening?"

"Yeah, babe. What's up?"

"I was just asking if you think Chuck is ok. He's been acting stranger than normal lately. Do you think things are ok with him and Sarah?"

"Uh, yeah, Chuck's fine. He's had some... stuff going on," Devon said evasively. He tried to think of something that Chuck could have had going on that Ellie might have noticed but Chuck wouldn't have shared with her. He realized he didn't really know that much about Chuck. He knew Chuck was a great guy, and that he loved Ellie and Sarah and Morgan and he liked his job enough and he was into computers, but... how long had the spy thing been going on and Devon hadn't even noticed? He usually considered himself a pretty observant guy, but apparently less observant than he thought.

"What kind of stuff?" Ellie asked curiously.

"Uh, Guy stuff."

"Devon, he's my brother. What kind of guy stuff?" Ellie's expression changed from curiosity to worry.

"I told him I wouldn't say anything. But he's fine." Devon was fairly certain he was telling the truth. Chuck had tried to explain everything to him, although every time he started going into detail, Sarah had given a significant cough and Casey had given a threatening look and moved his hand towards his waist, where Devon assumed he carried his gun (Devon couldn't believe he could think so casually about someone at the Buy More being a secret agent and carrying a gun), and Chuck had quickly moved on to a less specific topic. But from what he understood, Chuck was finished with whatever had brought the government out to begin with, so everything was awesome.

"Are you even listening to me?"

"What?"

"It's three days until the wedding and I am freaking out and you are not even paying attention! I asked you if your parents are coming to dinner tomorrow. Is that such a difficult question?"

"I don't know, babe."

"You don't know if it's a difficult question?" Ellie's voice was becoming shrill.

"I don't know if they're coming for dinner."

"Why don't you know? They're flying in tomorrow! I can't just do everything by myself!"

"I know, El. Calm down, I'll..."

"I can't calm down, we're getting married in three days and I still have so much to do and... I'll come to bed later." Ellie got out of the bed and Devon heard her walk into the kitchen and start banging pots and pans around as she ostensibly prepared for the wedding at eleven o'clock at night.

The next morning, Devon woke up and Ellie wasn't in bed. He hoped she hadn't spent the whole night in the kitchen being angry. When he left the bedroom, he saw Chuck.

"Hey, bro," he said, warily. The fact that Chuck was a spy of some sort actually really impressed him. He didn't think the guy had it in him.

"Hey, Captain Awesome," Chuck replied. "Have you seen Ellie?"

"Just about to ask you the same thing. She must have gone to the hospital already. It's her last day of work before the wedding."

"Did you two have a fight last night? I heard her smacking pots and pans around."

"Nah, it wasn't a big deal. She just wanted to know what you were up to."

"You didn't tell her, did you?"

"Of course not. Don't worry bro, I can keep a secret."

"Thanks Awes-Devon."

"I should get to work," Devon said. "Talk to Ellie."

"Don't worry," Chuck said reassuringly. "She's stressing, so just make things easier."

"I'm trying, man." Devon returned to his room where he got ready for work.

Ellie couldn't figure out what was going on. First Chuck, now Devon. She understood that Chuck and Sarah were becoming more and more serious, and she guessed that Devon was probably nervous about the wedding, but still, it wasn't like them to be irresponsible or not to answer her questions. She was a bit more understanding of Chuck, who was in love for the first time since Jill broke his heart, but Devon was supposed to be... awesome. Ellie knew she was expecting too much of him, wanting him to be perfect and calm while she freaked out, but she thought she deserved to be able to expect something, at least.

But she didn't want to fight about it, so she got up early, and headed off to her last day of work before she became Mrs. Devon Woodcomb instead of Miss Eleanor Bartowski, although she was considering keeping her maiden name on her nametag, because people paging Dr. Woodcomb might get a bit confused if she showed up and they were expecting Devon, or vice versa. She hadn't decided yet.

She didn't see Devon until about eleven-thirty that morning. She was in the middle of a consultation when he poked his head in, grinned that grin that always made her smile, no matter how angry she was, and held up a paper bag.

"One minute," she mouthed, holding up an index finger to indicate that he should wait.

"Lunch break," he mouthed back, giving her a thumbs up.

After Ellie's meeting with the patient finished, she met Devon at their usual table in the hospital cafeteria. He passed her the brown bag. "Open it," he urged. Inside was a salad, a turkey sandwich and a chocolate chip cookie.

"What's this?" Ellie asked.

"You mentioned the other day that you wished someone would make you lunch like when you were a kid."

"I was joking. I was just tired of cooking," Ellie laughed.

"I know. But I just know you think I haven't been paying attention lately, and I totally haven't. But now my attention is all on you." He punctuated the last three words with a kiss on her neck after each one.

"Devon," she pushed him away, smiling. "We're at work."

"And we're about to get married. It'd be weirder if we didn't amp up the PDA."

"You would tell me if Chuck wasn't ok, wouldn't you, hon?" Ellie asked.

"Of course, babe," Devon replied. "And he is absolutely ok. Awesome, in fact."

"Good," Ellie said, mollified.

Devon kissed her again. Then he said, "Well, I made you this lunch; let's eat."


End file.
